New California Law Bans Loud Commercials On Streaming Services

A new bill has been signed into law to address loud commercials on streaming services like Netflix, but a major catch ensures that not everyone will be able to take advantage of this solution.

Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, signed SB 576 into law, which prevents streaming services from increasing the audio levels of commercials above the level set for the shows and movies themselves.

Not a single member of the state legislature voted against the bill.

After SB 576 became the law of the land in California, Newsom publicly stated that he and the legislature acted in the interests of state residents who made their voices “loud and clear” that they don’t want to turn on a streaming service and experience commercials that are louder than the content itself.

We heard Californians loud and clear, and what’s clear is that they don’t want commercials at a volume any louder than the level at which they were previously enjoying a program.

State Senator Thomas Umberg added that he was a co-sponsor on this bill because he was inspired by his legislative director, whose baby has been woken up due to loud streaming service commercials.

This bill was inspired by baby Samantha and every exhausted parent who’s finally gotten a baby to sleep, only to have a blaring streaming ad undo all that hard work.

This law acts as an extension of the Commercial Advertising Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, which is a nationwide law with the same intention but only for linear TV.

However, unlike the CALM Act that was passed back in 2010, SB 576 is merely a state-level measure, which means it only applies to California and not the entire United States of America.

The California law could be a great template for a member of the U.S. Congress to lean on if one of them decides to introduce federal legislation that would bar loud streaming service commercials nationwide.

While there are lot of hot-button issues that Democrats and Republicans in Congress don’t agree on, especially in such a polarizing political environment, banning loud commercials should be an issue that everyone can support. After all, the CALM Act passed the U.S. Senate unanimously in 2010, so it’s possible that a unanimous vote could occur for an updated version of the bill that includes streaming services.

In the age of streaming services, there are a lot of complaints that subscribers have, including the mere existence of commercials on services that they pay for, like when Prime Video added commercials to its basic plan, which previously did not include ads.

While most major streaming services like Netflix have ad-free and ad-supported plans, the latter option has proven to be popular because it is more affordable for consumers. As a result, there are likely a lot more streaming service subscribers sitting through multiple ads that have a volume level higher than the show they’re watching.

Since SB 576 only applies to California, members of Congress will have to step up now and update the CALM Act to fit the media landscape of the 2020s.